Etiquette Formulas as Ethnolinguistic Components of Original and Translated 18th Century Kalmyk Official Texts: A Case Study of Letters by Khan Ayuka and Related Russian Translations, 1714–1715

Introduction. Kalmyk official texts of the 18th century and their parallel translations into Russian are, in the author’s opinion, ethnolinguistic sources, rich in culturally marked linguistic means. So far, initial formulas in Kalmyk official letters of the period and their Russian translations have not been studied in a comparative mode. The article aims to analyze etiquette formulas of Khan Ayuka’s letters as ethnolinguistic components, comparing them with their Russian translations. Materials and methods. The sources for the research were Kalmyk Khan’s letters of 1714–1715, kept in the Russian State Archives of Ancient Acts and in the National Archives of the Republic of Kalmykia. To identify translation strategies, both simultaneous and diachronic Russian translations of the material are used. The research involves descriptive, comparative-contrastive methods, as well as the method of contextual analysis. Conclusions. Comparative analysis of the original and translated texts indicated some differences in the traditions of greeting in the cultures in question, which are reflected in official writing. The translated texts are characterized by greater variability of linguistic means influencing the modality of etiquette statements: e. g. the addressee’s and addresser’s names may be added or deleted, ethnolinguistically marked language may be introduced, when components associated with the traditions of Buddhism were excluded or replaced with those associated with the Christian worldview. Depending on the addressee, his status, and the nature of official relationship of correspondents, the character of the etiquette formulas and greetings changes, too: the higher is the addressee’s status, the more complex is the syntactic aspect of etiquette formulas and the greater is the portion of lexical items of an elevated, loftier style used in translations. Of relevance is also the sequence of etiquette formulas in official correspondence, changes in the sequence marking the status of the addressee as well.

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